Firstly I wish to thank Thomas and Mercer and Agnes Rowe at Midaspr for inviting me on the Blog Tour for THE SECRET CHILD by Caroline Mitchell.

BOOK DESCRIPTION

DI Amy Winter knows evil. She’s lived through it.

Four-year-old Ellen is snatched by a stranger in the dead of night. Her devastated mother, Nicole, receives four identical phials and a threatening note in a familiar scrawl that chills her to the bone. But she always knew this would happen. She’s been expecting it for years…

According to the note, one of the phials is poisoned. Nicole is given a deadly challenge: if she drinks one, the sadistic kidnapper will notify the police of Ellen’s location. The sender claims to be Luka Volkov but Luka is supposed to be dead, killed long ago in a fire that haunts all those involved.

DI Amy Winter is still reeling from the discovery that she is the daughter of a serial killer, and her childhood trauma only makes her more determined to bring Ellen home. When another child is taken, Amy finds herself in a race against time. To rescue the children, must she seek help from the one person she wants to forget…?

Having read Truth and Lies, the first book in this series, this was a must read follow-up for me and although it can be read as an independent story, I recommend that you indulge in both books. Amy is still coming to terms with a horrific past that she still gets flash backs from, with only a few need to know people that she has shared her secret with.

When a phone call comes in from a concerned grandparent reporting her missing grand-daughter Ellen aged four, alarm bells begin to ring as to why the parents haven’t reported it themselves. D.I. Amy Winter has a very uneasy gut instinct that there is more to this than any ‘normal’ kidnapping, especially after meeting the very edgy Nicole, the mother of the little girl and her intimidating husband whose concern for his daughter is pretty flat lined. This is a belting story where a dead man’s name makes nightmares seem like a walk in the park to a small group of people. Beside this belting story line of abducted children, there is also Amy’s personal past winding its way back into her present day life again, as she becomes a modern-day Clarice to a scary as hell Hannibal Lecter substitute. Wow this is one play with your mind lady that you don’t want in your head. My skin really crawled with the smugness of this woman. She is very devious and knows exactly how to play on one particular person’s ego. At this point I was almost pulling my hair out shouting at my book with a real string of blasphemous words like something from the exorcist! My blood was boiling but to see this lady doing what she does best is Oscar-winning. A superb character of sheer brilliance!

There are so many very unlikable characters in this story as the sins of the fathers (and mothers) are falling on their children to bear the brunt of someone’s rage. The story drops back in time, with a menacing build up of sheer horror.

The wheels have been set in motion for more of this outstanding series as Amy’s career has never been under so much pressure while someone else has definitely got her foot in the door…………… frighteningly on the way out!

If you like your books to get under your skin and stay there, then look no further this series is for you, from former detective Caroline Mitchell as she takes you into a real dark place!

HERE IS A LITTLE ABOUT THE AUTHOR

USA Today and Global #1 Bestselling Thriller Author.

Shortlisted for a number of awards both in the US and in the UK, a USA Today bestseller and no 1 on Amazon in the US, Australia & the UK with over 30k followers on Twitter, a former police detective, Caroline Mitchell uses her in-depth knowledge of police procedures to create complex and suspenseful psychological thrillers. Caroline worked in CID and specialised in roles dealing with the vulnerable victims of domestic abuse and serious sexual offences. The mental strength shown by the victims of these crimes was a constant source of inspiration. A working mother of four, Caroline started writing due to the stress of dealing with such serious incidents and a way of processing the crimes she witnessed. Born and brought up in Ireland, she is happily married with four children and lives in Essex.